Alan Stewart’s UK and Ireland family history news

Ireland Dog Licence Registers 1866-1913 go online

The dog licence registers of the Petty Sessions courts are now available online for the first time.

Find My Past Ireland has made available the dog licence registers, which contain upwards of 250,000 entries per year from the introduction of dog licensing in 1866. Over the course of the decades covered by these records, millions of dogs were licenced.

This first instalment contains over 550,000 records, and ranges from 1866 to 1913. These records will be of particular interest to those with Irish ancestry in the following counties: Cork, Donegal, Dublin Galway, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Louth, Mayo, Roscommon, Tipperary & Wicklow. Findmypast.ie will be adding several million records to this collection over the coming months.

The details included in the dog licence entry are similar to those found on modern dog licences: the owner’s name and address, details regarding sex, and physical appearance of the dog. Findmypast.ie have transcribed the name, address and county of the dog-owner, with further information such as the dog’s breed, colour and sex included in the images.